Opinionated Bean

I managed to bully my way into an appointment with my surgeon, which was today.

I am now without a pee bag and no more foley catheters. The doctor assured me that it wasn’t due to my rotund shape that I had problems with the stoma. A bit of scar tissue formed just under the surface of the opening, and that was causing problems. As well, the catheters I was using (red rubber – aka Bard Catheters) were too soft. I am to use Coloplast with a curved tip, one size smaller.

I had a modified cystoscopy about an hour ago, which a scope/video camera was sent down into my neo-bladder via the stoma. Everything looks okay, no stones…so far, and the bladder looks nice and healthy. The stoma is a little scarred, but still looks good.

Because I have gone a month with an indwelling catheter I need to train up my bladder again, much like 18 months ago. I have to go cath every couple of hours for now and am under strict orders to go no more than 5 hours between cathing.

Managed to get a script for some macrobid, so I should be reasonably infection-free when I get onto that flight to Ol’ Blighty next Friday.